Hi there, !
Today Mon 10/14/2013 Sun 10/13/2013 Sat 10/12/2013 Fri 10/11/2013 Thu 10/10/2013 Wed 10/09/2013 Tue 10/08/2013 Archives
Rantburg
531689 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 51 articles and 185 comments as of 11:28.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Libya PM 'Freed' after Several Hours Held by Militia, Calls for Calm
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
6 13:59 SteveS [] 
4 14:20 SteveS [] 
15 20:00 JosephMendiola [] 
1 13:23 Zenobia Floger6220 [] 
1 21:08 USN, Ret [] 
1 02:01 JosephMendiola [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 10:27 Jugum Speaking for Boskone8065 [] 
2 13:09 Raj [1] 
0 [] 
8 21:04 USN, Ret [1] 
3 17:14 Phaising Speaking for Boskone4311 [] 
5 17:49 Barbara [] 
20 21:14 SteveS [2] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
5 21:01 USN, Ret []
1 08:03 Glenmore []
0 []
7 23:04 Frank G []
0 []
3 14:33 Shipman []
1 07:29 Spereting Tingle4064 []
4 22:46 Glenmore []
0 []
0 []
3 14:32 Shipman []
0 []
4 19:18 Herb Gloluger9960 []
2 12:09 AlanC []
0 []
0 []
Page 2: WoT Background
8 23:58 JosephMendiola []
3 08:10 Glenmore []
3 19:35 JosephMendiola []
0 [1]
0 []
0 []
2 13:55 AlanC []
0 []
0 []
0 []
2 17:37 Pappy []
2 11:44 Bobby []
0 []
1 10:30 Jugum Speaking for Boskone8065 []
4 14:37 Thrans Splat1574 []
Page 4: Opinion
27 19:35 CrazyFool [2]
Page 6: Politix
14 19:45 JosephMendiola []
5 10:41 Iblis []
12 21:40 Zenobia Floger6220 []
5 17:00 M. Murcek []
-Lurid Crime Tales-
U.S. Nuclear Command's Deputy Chief Sacked over Probe
[An Nahar] The deputy commander of U.S. nuclear forces has been fired from his post after being investigated for allegedly using counterfeit chips at a casino, officers said Wednesday.

The move was highly unusual against such a senior officer in U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the country's nuclear-armed missiles, submarines and bombers.

Vice Admiral Tim Giardina, a career three-star submarine officer, was reassigned from his position as the No. 2 officer at STRATCOM to the Navy staff pending the outcome of a probe by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, military officers said.

General Robert Kehler, the chief of U.S. Strategic Command, had recommended Giardina be reassigned last month and the official decision to relieve him of his duty came this week.

The move was approved by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and President Barack Obama
If you have a small business, you didn't build that...
, officials said.

"On September 3, General Kehler, who is the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, suspended Admiral Giardina," the command's spokeswoman Navy Captain Pamela Kunze told Agence La Belle France Presse.

The recommendation was not announced publicly and the suspension was first reported by the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.

Giardina had held his job since December 2011, according to the Navy's chief front man, Admiral John Kirby. Giardina will be demoted a rank due to the change.

"He will be reassigned in the grade of rear admiral since he is no longer serving in a position requiring three stars," Kirby said.
Posted by: Fred || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  General Curtis LeMay could not be reached for comment.
Posted by: Green Steve || 10/11/2013 7:55 Comments || Top||

#2  I eagerly look forward to the hours that will now be spent by the Navy, educating me on the dangers of "problem gambling."

/sarc
Posted by: Pappy || 10/11/2013 10:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Amazing. We are seeing Flag Rank officers removed for more bizarre reasons we could not imagine. You can't make this stuff up!
Posted by: Snereting Untervehr6260 || 10/11/2013 11:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Also said to be an amateur Diamond Seller/Marketeer.

Posted by: Shipman || 10/11/2013 14:37 Comments || Top||

#5  2 Star Air Force General also fired. What's going on?
Posted by: Anging Hatfield6648 || 10/11/2013 14:56 Comments || Top||

#6  obooboo is getting ready to promote val jarett to the post. ICBMs to be re-targeted on red states before the obooboo care exchange website goes back up (sorta) for bidness...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 10/11/2013 16:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Barry's getting rid of the opposition, one flag officer at a time. It's either that or the corruption has so filled every aspect of DC life that we no longer have honest men leading the military. It's a toss-up as to which idea has the most merit, or whether it's a large dollop of both.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 10/11/2013 19:31 Comments || Top||

#8  concur w/ OP; discussion @ work also showed I was not the only one thinking that. dump the real patriots, bring in the bootlickers and arse kissers......
Posted by: USN, Ret || 10/11/2013 21:04 Comments || Top||


Today's Idiots
Two men were killed by an explosion as they used a blowtorch to open up a strongbox that turned out to be full of fireworks at a Hopkinton, N.H., landscaping company early Tuesday morning, cops said.
Ooooooops...
The two men were dead when cops and firefighters showed up at the scene at New Yard Landscaping on Farrington Corner Road at 1:31 a.m., after a neighbor reported hearing the blast.
"What was that?"
"Sounds like an explosion down at the New Yard place!"

Authorities did not say why the men were there but said they did not have permission to be on the property in the middle of the night.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...better call Columbo.
The victims, Lucas Bourke of Allenstown, N.H., and Ethan Keeler of Epsom, N.H., both 21, were using an oxy-acetylene torch in an attempt to “gain entry to a closed metal container” filled with consumer fireworks when the box exploded, officials said.
"Ah, c'mon, Lucas. It'll be a pushover..."
It was unclear whether the two men knew what was in the metal box when they started heating it up.
"Hey, what's that smell?"
"Smells like firew.....

An investigation by the Hopkinton police and fire departments, as well as state Fire Marshal J. William Degnan, is ongoing.
"What's ya take, Muldoon?"
"Well, sarge, to me it looks like two idiot assholes tried to open up a safe fulla fireworks with a blowtorch."
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Best snark of the day, thanks I needed that.
Posted by: BrujoTejano || 10/11/2013 11:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Bummer,

I thought this would be something about Obama and the Democrats...oh wait...aren't they being nominated for THIS CENTURY'S IDIOTS?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 10/11/2013 12:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Sorry Bill. Sadly that distinction belongs to the people who voted them into office.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/11/2013 13:35 Comments || Top||

#4  The obituaries of the TWO HAPLESS YUTS:

EthanKeeler

Lucas Leonard Bourke
Posted by: Snineger Ghibelline1693 || 10/11/2013 16:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Damn shame.*

*destroying a perfectly good building like that
Posted by: Barbara || 10/11/2013 17:49 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter Dies at 88
John Glenn's the only one left.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  America has run out of men with The Right Stuff.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/11/2013 1:54 Comments || Top||

#2  America has run out of men with The Right Stuff.

But on the other hand, we have been delivered from the terror of postage stamps depicting 'dangerous' activities. "God help us all", said Tiny Tim.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/11/2013 2:49 Comments || Top||

#3  God bless, sir.
Posted by: Phaising Speaking for Boskone4311 || 10/11/2013 17:14 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Study: Radical Climate Change Just around the Corner
[An Nahar] Earth may experience a radically different climate already within 34 years, forever changing life as we know it, said a study Wednesday that aims to bring the dangers of global warming into sharper focus.
"We calculate a probability at the 99% confidence interval of between 0 and 1," concluded the study authors.
On current trends of greenhouse-gas emissions, 2047 will mark the year at which the climate at most places on Earth will shift beyond documented extremes, it said.
Or not, as the case may be. It depends if one believes the 73 IPCC models or the actual data, donchaknow.
This date is pushed back to 2069 under a scenario in which fossil-fuel burning emissions are stabilized, said an analysis of climate projections published in the journal Nature.
Anyone remember GIGO (garbage in, garbage out)?
"The results shocked us," lead author Camilo Mora of the University of Hawaii's geography department said of the findings.

"Within my generation, whatever climate we are used to will be a thing of the past."
In fact, everything we are or are not currently used to will then be things of the past, because we humans are capable of moving only one direction in time.
Most climate studies predict average, global shifts by a randomly-chosen cutoff date like 2100.
Yes. Yes, they do. Odd, that, given the data and all..
The new study took a different tack by distinguishing between different areas of the world, and seeking to identify the year in which climate change will cross the threshold where weather events once viewed as extreme become the norm.
Remember the fate of Cassandra and beware. Nobody loves a true prophet, but everyone hates a false one.
It looked at effects such as air and sea-surface temperature, rainfall and ocean acidity.
What about thunderstorm formation ringing warm surface temperatures high into the atmosphere to be radiated out into space? Sunspot activity? Deep ocean currents? Increased plant growth in response to higher carbon dioxide levels?
"Regardless of the scenario, changes will be coming soon," said Mora -- forcing species to adapt, move or die out.
Yep. Even in these modern times evolution continues to occur.
Posted by: Fred || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How many of these doomsday scenarios from previous years have actually panned out? G. F. Yourselves...
Posted by: Raj || 10/11/2013 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Since all the models that the IPCC and other doomsayers used failed to predict the current non-warming, they are all BS.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 10/11/2013 1:54 Comments || Top||

#3  RIV, you put it so nicely.

I've had 30+ years in the software business and have created many models and analysed many more.

GIGO is the flaw in most all of them. People don't realize how simple the concept of a model is. Anyone who has ever created a spreadsheet has created a model.

Enter wanky data and you can get pretty much any result you want. (you should have seen my retirement fund when I got optimistic)

Crap, crap and more crap.
Posted by: AlanC || 10/11/2013 8:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Hmmmmmm...looks like this merits more study. Johnson, where's that grant paperwork?
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/11/2013 8:25 Comments || Top||

#5  1. Global warming is occurring. (So is Climate Change.)
2. It has been going on with only small interruptions for the past 10,000 years.
3. Some component is due to CO2 production. Also methane release. Amount uncertain.
4. Many other factors are also in play - both man-influenced and not.
5. Some of those other man-influenced factors counteract the warming effect. Amount uncertain.
6. The science is not even close to 'settled.'
7. If burnable carbon can be burned it will be, by someone, fairly soon. No Treaty will change that.
8. The 'powerful ones' are fully aware of point 7, so the intentions are not to modify climate but to redistribute wealth, from US/EU to everyone else, and from suckers to connected individuals.
Posted by: Glenmore || 10/11/2013 8:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Whatever happened to the "hole in the ozone layer"? Does it not fit the current agenda, or did we fix it with duct tape?
Posted by: OCCD || 10/11/2013 9:26 Comments || Top||

#7  Where are the error bars? They show two different emission scenarios, but no estimate of the systematic error in the model.

The numbers are probably OK, provided they are given appropriate error estimates. Given the near-term climate history (Ice Ages), I'd go with +-100KY.
Posted by: James || 10/11/2013 11:04 Comments || Top||

#8  GIGO is a best case.

Recursively using outputs as inputs (for t+1) EXPONENTIALLY RAISES the ERROR.

if the error in the model or reading is 5%
after 10 (days) there's 41% error.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/11/2013 11:10 Comments || Top||

#9  BP, you are so right, BUT, we can't make the assumption that the original garbage was an error.

I presume that they knew what would happen to the result (or close enough) depending on the selected input and selected accordingly.

You should have seen my retirement funding when I entered a 25% yearly rate of return...after all it was just an estimate. ;^)
Posted by: AlanC || 10/11/2013 11:47 Comments || Top||

#10  We need these people to be held accountable when they recommend such massive/expensive/life changing things and they turn out to be so wrong.

It would at least get them to calm down on overblowing the rhettoric every time.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/11/2013 14:41 Comments || Top||

#11  Do your really think anyone in their right mind is paying attention to this blather on "Radical Climate Change"?

Frankly, I'm not because I know I will be dead within these 34 years. Thus I don't give a flying f*ck and I do tell people they are >ssholes if they bother to repeat such sh-t, to there face.

Posted by: Snineger Ghibelline1693 || 10/11/2013 15:40 Comments || Top||

#12  "Whatever happened to the 'hole in the ozone layer'?"

Good question, OCCD.

I've got another question along those lines:

Since we didn't know about the "hole in the ozone layer" until we put up satellites, how to we know it's hasn't been around for centuries (or millinnia)?

Anyway, I'm sure you're right - duct tape can fix anything. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 10/11/2013 17:37 Comments || Top||

#13  The problem with the model could be GIGO. The problem could also be that there are several factors that are not included in the model that are actually very critical to the real climate. This could because scientists aren't aware of their importance, or they don't have the data for those variables. The worst case would be that they know about the variables, and their values, but when they add the information to the models, it doesn't give the results they want.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 10/11/2013 18:29 Comments || Top||

#14  The problem could also be that there are several factors that are not included in the model that are actually very critical to the real climate.

Like that big bright orb in the sky every day. Of course, you can't really extort money from the rubes if there's nothing you can do about it.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/11/2013 18:40 Comments || Top||

#15  * FYI see NBC NEWS, FREEREPUBLIC, + TOPIX > ASTRONOMERS SAY THEY'VE SPOTTED A LONESOME [purple/purplish-colored] PLANET WIDOUT A SUN.

D *** NG IT, REMINDS ME OF THE PURPLE PLANET-A-THINGY [apparition?] I SPOTTED OVER GUAM'S HAGATNA BAY/WESTPAC ONE LATE NIGHT SEVERAL MONTHS AGO.

Roughly in the same strategic place in the sky, but moving in the opposite/reverse driection, as the later CHELYABINSK twin bolides that exploded over Mama Russia earlier this yeear. Russia thinks the Chelybinsk bolides may had come from a family of siblings out in space.

[SUN GOD PHOEBUS APOLLO + TWIN SISTER-GODDESS PHOEBUS CYNTHEIA here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/11/2013 20:00 Comments || Top||


USPS To Destroy "Let's Move" Stamps Over Safety Concerns
From the same mindset that led to banning middle schoolers' balls and cartwheels during recess.
Posted by: Grunter || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gimme a break. It's not like they depict a kid using a blowtorch to open a strongbox full of fireworks. How are kids supposed to be more active if playing video games is the only thing that's safe?
Posted by: RandomJD || 10/11/2013 1:16 Comments || Top||

#2  USPS Marketing chief Nagisa Manabe
An American citizen of African origin.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/11/2013 3:51 Comments || Top||

#3  OH THE HORROR!

I couldn't even finish the article for the fear for the children.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 10/11/2013 5:43 Comments || Top||

#4  This thing looks so scary I don't even think I want to open it to look.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/11/2013 7:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Skidmark: What does that have to do with the price of kalashnikovs in Peshawar?

On the article as a whole: Do they really WANT couch potatoes?
Posted by: Korora || 10/11/2013 8:33 Comments || Top||

#6  The unsafe depictions came to light after USPS Marketing chief Nagisa Manabe asked Michelle Obama to take part in a first day ceremony for the stamps.

When FLOTUS and ValJar [the showdown gov't] speak, everybody listens. Come back Manabe my sister, when you have stamps about suffering, impoverishment, and apartheid.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/11/2013 10:40 Comments || Top||

#7  They are fanatics acting in strict devotion to their faith. That is the only way to understand such behavior.
Posted by: Iblis || 10/11/2013 10:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Speaking of banning, it looks like I managed to get myself banned over there :-)
Posted by: KBK || 10/11/2013 12:51 Comments || Top||

#9  The stamps in question depicted children performing a cannonball dive, skateboarding without kneepads, and doing a headstand without a helmet.

When I was a kid we made skateboards out of old 2x4s and cheap metal roller skates nailed to the 2x4. We rode them on concrete sidewalks and asphalt streets. There were no helmets or knee pads, just a bunch of kids having a heckuva lotta fun. If you don't develop those kinds of skills and muscle memories when you're young you'll grow up fat, uncoordinated, unhealthy and unable to do much of anything but watch TV and play video games. And then, OH NO, the kids will be playing Grand Theft Auto.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 10/11/2013 14:08 Comments || Top||

#10  Congrats, KBK! Pretty inflammatory.

Stuff like this, along with the recent National Park nonsense, makes me question why we even have a government.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/11/2013 14:10 Comments || Top||

#11  I'd have asked for my "lovely parting gifts".
Posted by: Pappy || 10/11/2013 15:07 Comments || Top||

#12  We did the same thing, EU6305.

That's what Merthiolate (now probably banned, too) was for.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 10/11/2013 15:56 Comments || Top||

#13  Merthiolate and mercurochrome, one of them used to sting when it was applied but I can't remember which one. I was happy later on when they came out with Bactine.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 10/11/2013 16:30 Comments || Top||

#14  But you gotta go out and take your lumps. That's what I'm saying...bumps, bruises and scrapes. Don't wanna be a sissy.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 10/11/2013 16:32 Comments || Top||

#15  Merthiolate's the one that stung, EU.

Not sure why mercurochrome didn't - less mercury, maybe (or more)? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 10/11/2013 17:54 Comments || Top||

#16  Looking back at my childhood, it is a wonder that I made it to adulthood.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 10/11/2013 19:33 Comments || Top||

#17  We made it to adulthood so we could annoy our children and spoil the grandkids, Rambler.

Someone has to teach them the safe usage of fireworks (and how to make a skateboard).
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 10/11/2013 20:20 Comments || Top||

#18  Mullah, as I often say "Grandchildren are God's gift to parents for letting their kids live long enough to reproduce."
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 10/11/2013 20:34 Comments || Top||

#19  ;)
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 10/11/2013 20:54 Comments || Top||

#20  Someone has to teach them the safe usage of fireworks (and how to make a skateboard

Yeah. And how to stop a nose bleed from getting hit in the face with a soccer ball. We're talking basic life skills here, people!
Posted by: SteveS || 10/11/2013 21:14 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Morocco King Names New Govt Ending 3-Month Drift
[An Nahar] Morocco's King Mohammed VI appointed a new Islamist-led government on Thursday ending a months-long crisis triggered by the defection of a key coalition partner, a minister told Agence La Belle France Presse.

The king "has just appointed the new government" at a ceremony at the palace in Rabat, said Justice Minister Mustafa Ramid, a member of the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party whose leader, Abdelila Benkirane, remains prime minister.

The cabinet shake-up sees Saad-Eddine El Othmani replaced as foreign minister by Salaheddine Mezouar, who heads the National Rally of Independents and whose agreement to join the government effectively prevented it from collapsing.

Six women also take cabinet posts, four of them from the RNI, compared with just one in the previous administration.

Also, a new education minister has been appointed after the king strongly criticized the outgoing government's education policy in a speech in August.

Benkirane's party has headed the government since triumphing in 2011 elections that followed the Arab Spring protests sweeping Morocco's main cities earlier that year.

But the coalition was threatened when the nationalist Istiqlal Party withdrew five of its ministers in July, accusing the PJD of failing to shore up the economy and solve pressing social problems.

The Islamist premier managed to avert fresh elections by persuading the RNI, a party that opposed the government program adopted last year, to join the coalition.
Posted by: Fred || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So if could get the Morocco King to stop by over here, maybe he could do a sequel. sure couldn't pick any thing/or body worse that the drifters we got ( apologies to the Motown group)
Posted by: USN, Ret || 10/11/2013 21:08 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
UN calls for someone else's troops in Central African Republic
The United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution to help stabilize the war-torn Central African Republic.

The 15-member council approved the resolution in a unanimous vote Thursday. The measure calls on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to prepare options for helping a small African Union force in the country.
that would be General Ban Ki-moon
It said the options should include the possibility of transforming the force into a U.N. peacekeeping operation.
Posted by: badanov || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It said the options should include the possibility of transforming the force into a U.N. peacekeeping operation.

What does that mean? They gonna send them cases of Rustoleum to spray pain the helmets baby blue?
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/11/2013 8:23 Comments || Top||

#2  'Let's you and him fight!'
Posted by: Raj || 10/11/2013 13:09 Comments || Top||


Arabia
More Saudi Women Defy Driving Ban
[Ynet] Saudi women are opposing driving ban, taking wheel. 'More women are driving than ever; it's no longer as rejected,' activist says

Saudi women are increasingly getting behind the wheel in defiance of a driving ban ahead of a nationwide campaign planned by female activists for later this month, witnesses said.

A video posted on social networks this week shows a fully veiled woman driving in Riyadh as male motorists and families gave her the "thumbs up" in support.

Related stories:
Saudi women call new day of defiance against driving ban
Saudis reconsider driving ban on women
Saudi religious police lift ban on women on bikes

"Several women are now driving but not being filmed," said activist Khulud al-Fahd.

"I saw a woman in (the eastern city of) Khobar driving. This is becoming more acceptable and is no longer rejected as it once was," she told AFP.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good. Now help us with the wimps in our House fight the IRS.
Posted by: Raj || 10/11/2013 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  I dunno - keeping the women from driving seemed like the only thing they were doing right (dons body armor and helmet.)
Posted by: Glenmore || 10/11/2013 8:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Glenmore dear, if you'd like to leave your job and your wife to chauffeur me and the various daughters to all the places we have been driving ourselves, you are perfectly welcome.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/11/2013 11:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh, tw! That's what self-driving robot cars are for.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/11/2013 14:20 Comments || Top||


Saudi Advisory Body Rejects Bid to Raise Women Driving Ban
[An Nahar] Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
's appointed advisory body on Thursday rejected a move by three female members to put the ultra-conservative kingdom's unique ban on women driving up for discussion, state media reported.
Just looking out for the ladies' ovaries...
Its decision came even as activists hailed increasing reports of women getting behind the wheel in defiance of the ban ahead of a nationwide protest they are planning for later this month.

The Shura Consultative Council, which counts 30 women among its 150 members, rejected a move by one female member to raise the issue during a discussion on Thursday of transport ministry matters, the official SPA news agency reported.

It said the issue was "irrelevant" to the discussions and "not within the transport ministry's remit."

On Tuesday, three female council members filed a recommendation that the ban be lifted, one of the three, Latifa al-Shaalan, said.

Their recommendation urged the council to "recognize the right of women to drive a car in accordance with the principles of sharia (Islamic law) and traffic rules."
Posted by: Fred || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mutaween said, "You're gonna drive us to drinkin'
If you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln"
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 10/11/2013 13:23 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China detains journalist in crackdown
From the Losing the Mandate of Heaven Department:

Passing a law eliminating a tort such as defamation being used in a criminal complaint would make things better in China.

A Chinese investigative journalist who has accused officials of corruption has been arrested, his lawyer said on Thursday, becoming the latest in a series of government critics to be swept up in Beijing's crackdown on rumors.

Liu Hu, a reporter with the Guangzhou-based newspaper New Express, was arrested on a charge of defamation on Sept. 30, said his lawyer, Zhou Ze. Liu had been detained in late August in the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing on suspicion of "fabricating and spreading rumors."
Posted by: badanov || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


South Korea Charges 100 With Corruption Over Nuclear Scandal
[Ynet] South Korea has indicted 100 people, including a top former state utility official, of corruption in a scandal over fake safety certifications for parts in nuclear reactors, authorities said Thursday.

The country has faced a series of shutdowns of nuclear reactors due to fake documents going back to 2012. Of its 23 reactors, six remain offline, including three halted in May to replace cables supplied with bogus certificates. "We hope so-called nuclear mafia style behavior would be rooted out if strict investigations and law enforcement and system reforms continue," Kim Dong-yeon, a government policy coordinator, said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
Solar Power Advances in Kentucky
There. I gave it a PC-correct Title. It IS from Rooters.
Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities plan to seek approval from regulators to build a natural gas-fired power plant and a solar facility to replace retiring coal plants and meet future demand growth.

The utilities want to build the new gas plant at their Green River facility. It will generate about 700 megawatts of power using combined-cycle technology and cost about $700 million. One megawatt powers about 1,000 homes.
One megawatt = One million dollars = 1,000 homes = $1,000 a home. Not too bad, for initial capital cost, I'd say.
The solar facility will cost about $25 million and have a capacity of about 10-MW. The utilities said they are looking at several sites for the solar facility.
One megawatt = $2.5 million, or $2,500 per home. Hmmmm... carry the one .... that's - 250% more than natural gas. Watt a waste of money! Good thing the evil utilities will just eat up that cost and take it out of their evil shareholder profits! not
In 2011, the utilities announced they will retire 800 MW of older coal-fired generation at the Cane Run, Green River and Tyrone power plants over the next several years due in part to increased federal environmental regulations.

If approved, LG&E and KU said their overall generation capacity will be 59 percent coal-fired, 40 percent natural gas-fired and 1 percent renewable.
One percent renewable. Why, I bet that's a huge increase over five years ago!
Posted by: Bobby || 10/11/2013 07:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought this was going to be about stills.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 10/11/2013 8:21 Comments || Top||

#2  That's a great thought, Nimble! Think I shall get a grant application going for a solar moonshine still.
Posted by: Glenmore || 10/11/2013 8:32 Comments || Top||

#3  I have come to distrust the advertised power for green pôwer plants. More often than not is not an estimated yearly butepaj performance. Ie what the power plant will pe producing at noon on avery hot day in Jumy when there is excess capacity anyway. The yearly averge is a _lot_ less. And of course you solar power plant will probably be not of any hemp at the most critical moment of the year: Super Bowl's half time when millions of fridges fire up at the same time when people watching Super Bowl open the door and take a beer in it.

Also notice the disparity: 20 Mw to 700: 2.8%. In plain english: peanuts.
Posted by: JFM || 10/11/2013 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Liberal dilemma: Solar powered gun manufacture.
Posted by: Iblis || 10/11/2013 10:49 Comments || Top||

#5  There's already whiskey called Suntory, so I guess the Kentucky product would have to be called SunSkullBust or some such...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 10/11/2013 13:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Think I shall get a grant application going for a solar moonshine still.

If you pitch this as a solar bio-fuel generation project (ethanol is ethanol!), you've got a winner.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/11/2013 13:59 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Lawyers go berserk, lock up judges
[Dawn] The lawyers' body of the federal capital on Wednesday confined several judges to the district court and locked the doors of 40 courts for an indefinite period.

However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
the judges were gotten released later in the evening.

The incident occurred when Civil Judge Umer Shabbir showed reluctance in issuing a contempt of court notice to the chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for demolishing lawyers' chambers being constructed on a football ground in F-8.

The lawyers had started constructing the chambers last month which did not go down well with the residents of the area who registered their protest at various forums.

It may be mentioned here that in September, some lawyers razed the security walls of the district courts and built new chambers instead.

They also constructed chambers on footpaths, litigants' sitting area and all other open areas available in front of the courtrooms.

Therefore, a meeting between lawyers' representatives, district court judges and IHC Chief Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi was held. It was agreed that the chambers constructed in front of courtrooms would be demolished.

However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...
according to Chaudhry Haseeb, the secretary general of IHC bar association, the lawyers did not want chambers on the football ground to be razed. Therefore, they obtained a stay order on Friday.

"We then started demolishing the illegally-constructed chambers in front of the district courts. However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk...
on Tuesday night, the CDA razed a few chambers on the football ground," Mr Haseeb said.

On Wednesday, some 500 lawyers approached Civil Judge Umer Shabbir and asked him to issue a contempt of court notice to the CDA chairman for demolishing the chambers despite the stay order. Instead, Mr Shabbir left the courtroom and went to his chamber.

This infuriated the lawyers who raised slogans against the judges and locked many in the courtroom.

Realising the gravity of the situation, the acting district and sessions judge Wajid Ali called the IHC registrar office and informed him about the incident.

He said the lawyers were "not only threatening the learned judges but also chanting slogans against the district judiciary."

The acting IHC chief justice, Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan, then constituted a team asking it to visit the district court and submit a report.
Posted by: Fred || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  That be SOCCER thats involved in this brouhayhay.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/11/2013 2:01 Comments || Top||


Activists protest against desecration of Hindu grave in Sindh
[Dawn] Rights group staged a protest outside the Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
Press Club on Thursday against a recent incident in Pangrio, Badin, where the body of a young Hindu man was taken out of the grave by some 'religious bad boys.'

According to recent reports in the media, Bhooro, 28, a lower caste Hindu, was buried in Haji Faqir graveyard in Pangrio Badin district, after he died in a traffic accident.

Pangrio's Haji Faqir graveyard has had a long tradition of burying Hindus belonging to the Bheel community. Bheels are among the few in the Hindu community who don't cremate their dead.

What followed was a statement from a holy man announcing on a mosque's loudspeaker that it is "against the teachings Islam" to allow a Hindu to be buried beside a Mohammedan.
What followed was a statement from a holy man announcing on a mosque's loudspeaker that it is "against the teachings Islam" to allow a Hindu to be buried beside a Mohammedan.

Eventually, a few people, who are said to have links with a political party in the area, dug out the body from the grave and left it across the road. The body remained on the road for about eight hours until the locals erupted into the streets pushing the area police to take action against the men.

Speaking to Dawn.com, an official from Pakistain Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler), Shujauddin Qureshi said that "the incident is worrisome for the people of Sindh, where such incidents were never heard of before." He also added that the incident is based on a "political grievance" against the Bheel community in particular for voting for a rival party in the recently held general elections.

"A local newspaper quoted a grave digger as saying that there are 5-6 graves of lower caste Hindus in the graveyard. Not surprisingly, he backed off after stating that, after some people flared up the issue on that point alone," he adds.

An FIR was registered, but protestors at the KPC said that the holy man who "encouraged" the men has not been included in it, yet.

The incident which occurred on October 6 created uproar on social networking websites where many people denounced the act.

A rights group activist, Sheerin Aijaz, who was a part of the protest, said that the culprits need to be tossed in the calaboose
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
. "We have to set a precedent. If nothing else, the sitting ministers should at least denounce the incident, even if they have shown time and again that they are complacent when faced with such issues."
Posted by: Fred || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


International-UN-NGOs
OPEC production falls
OPEC's crude oil production fell below 30-million barrels a day in September. That's the first time that's happened in more than two years.

There are two main reasons for the drop in OPEC production. John Kingston of Platts says one is a temporary problem, while the other is ongoing and may be more troublesome.
Posted by: badanov || 10/11/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Didn't I read somewhere that the USA became the largest oil producer in the world within this last year ? If so then the country has the chance of exporting oil, hence reversing the tide in the balance of payments issue.
Posted by: Jugum Speaking for Boskone8065 || 10/11/2013 10:27 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
26[untagged]
6Govt of Pakistan
4Arab Spring
4TTP
2Govt of Iran
2Hezbollah
2Jamaat-e-Islami
1Govt of Syria
1Fatah al-Islam
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1al-Shabaab
1Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2013-10-11
  Libya PM 'Freed' after Several Hours Held by Militia, Calls for Calm
Thu 2013-10-10
  Libyan Prime Minister Zeidan kidnapped by gunmen
Wed 2013-10-09
  Egypt Strips Muslim Brotherhood of NGO Status
Tue 2013-10-08
  Egypt: Huge Explosion Hits Security HQ In Sinai
Mon 2013-10-07
  SEAL Strike on Shaboob Big Turban Fails in Somalia
Sun 2013-10-06
  Abu Anas al-Libi snatched
Sat 2013-10-05
  Boko Haram: 186 killed, 15 arrested as Military raids insurgents' camp in Yobe
Fri 2013-10-04
  Belgium Extradites Nisar Trabelsi to U.S.
Thu 2013-10-03
  Iranian cyber warfare commander shot dead in suspected assassination
Wed 2013-10-02
  Iraq Executes 23 People in Two Days
Tue 2013-10-01
  Drone strike in North Waziristan kills two, injures one
Mon 2013-09-30
  US drone kills three in Pakistan
Sun 2013-09-29
  Boko murders up to 50 students in their sleep
Sat 2013-09-28
  Sudan Arrests 600 over 'Vandalism'
Fri 2013-09-27
  Peshawar Bus Bombing Kills 17 Govt Employees

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
3.238.135.30
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (16)    WoT Background (15)    Opinion (1)    (0)    Politix (4)